Gilles' next tournament is Bangkok, and that's if he can recover well enough from the shoulder problem. He has 3 weeks. If I understand correctly, infiltration works to speed up the regeneration of tissues...

His ranking unfortunately has dropped down to 20 after USO and 21 if Roddick somehow manages to get to SF, which I of course think it's not possible (no disrespect to Roddick but a huge Nole fan I am). Which means things will get really tough from now on, like he won't be seeded for Tokyo nor Shanghai unless there's numerous w/d. Still, his race pts is at around 17, and he has about 200 pts more than the 20th player in the Race. So his goal, for sure, is to keep that ranking, or possibly try to move back up to top 15. But anyway, he has about 5 tournaments remained (if things turn out as planned), so plenty of time to catch up, as long as his body cooperates.

He'll probably end up seeded for Shanghai, I have a feeling at least 3-4 guys in the top 20 will miss.

Unfortunately because many of the top guys missed out this summer, the 10-20 ranked guys all picked up a lot of points in their absence and moved up the rankings. They likely won't be able to defend these points next year but it will be tough for Gilles to keep up in the next 12 months because he lost out on all these points this summer. That being said, even though he dropped to 20th, he's still really close to 4 or 5 guys in front of him so one good tournament and he's back to number 15 or 16. If Gilles can get his serve back, indoor hardcourts are usually good for him except for last year so I am hopeful he can make up some ground in the fall.

That's a good point.
I was so looking forward to this US summer bcos Gilles has always done well (except 2010 after he came back from knee injury) and the field was wide open. But sadly the shoulder strike, and he got left behind .

Quote:

Originally Posted by mike s.

He'll probably end up seeded for Shanghai, I have a feeling at least 3-4 guys in the top 20 will miss.

You think so? I think Rafa and Fed are the likely w/d. But the rest seems healthy enough. It will be good if he somehow get a seed, otherwise, for all his luck lately, he could get Murray in the first round.

He's not playing on the Vienna/ Moscow/ Stockholm week, it would be good for his ranking if he plays there, because the entry lists there are weak, but I think that if he loses early in Tokyo/Shangai he would ask for a WC.

This is the year-end report card. I always keep track of numbers cos numbers tell a thousand pictures. Thought I'll just share with you guys in case you are also a number person like me. The 2nd chart is the breakdown of the ranking points.

Gilles actually earns the same number of ranking point this year as last year. But this year, he started at ranking 12 down to 16, compares to last year he went up from 41 to 12. So yes, it's a bit of a disappointing year. He completely failed in all ATP500 but did very well in ATP1000 (2 SF, 1 QF). And of course the most disappointing is the slam performance. Hopefully, he'll do better next year.

A disclaimer here, for the other players who's ranking pts included Davis Cup points, I didn't want to bother looking up at DC's record to determine what surface those ranking pts was earned on, so I based them on my memory, which is not very good, so there maybe some discrepancy there but I figure the number is not big enough to screw up the picture. And if you like studying numbers and found mistakes, do let me know.

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P.S. I just remembered that this year's rule was a little more relax than last year, he counted 5 ATP250 instead of max 3 last year. If I based the pts on last year's rule, he would have only 2100 pts (O.G. 70 pts & Hamburg 45 pts in place of the 2 90s from Brisbane & Nice), which would have made his pt total in 2012 just a little less than 2011, still not too bad.

This is the year-end report card. I always keep track of numbers cos numbers tell a thousand pictures. Thought I'll just share with you guys in case you are also a number person like me. The 2nd chart is the breakdown of the ranking points.

Gilles actually earns the same number of ranking point this year as last year. But this year, he started at ranking 12 down to 16, compares to last year he went up from 41 to 12. So yes, it's a bit of a disappointing year. He completely failed in all ATP500 but did very well in ATP1000 (2 SF, 1 QF). And of course the most disappointing is the slam performance. Hopefully, he'll do better next year.

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A disclaimer here, for the other players who's ranking pts included Davis Cup points, I didn't want to bother looking up at DC's record to determine what surface those ranking pts was earned on, so I based them on my memory, which is not very good, so there maybe some discrepancy there but I figure the number is not big enough to screw up the picture. And if you like studying numbers and found mistakes, do let me know.

Thanks so much! It confirms what we assumed that he was really hurt by the 500 events and the majors. I think the Australian Open should be his best major based on surface so hopefully he can do much better there this year. He would have made the year-end masters if it was just based on Masters series events.

It’s a little puzzling why he did so badly in ATP500 this year, theorically it’s easier draw than those ATP1000s. But anyway, he did make up those lost ATP500 pts by doing well in ATP1000. Last year, he had 695 ATP1000 pts and 590 ATP500 pts, that is 1285 pts, compares to 1225 ATP1000 pts this year. So it’s pretty good. However, he really needs to do better in slams, not only for the pts, but slam results weight so much more in perception. And as Mike said, Aussie is really his best slam surface, he ought to do better in 2013.

Watched both matches on stream.
1st match against Berlocq, good match to watch. Score 6/7, 6/4, 6/1. W/UE Gilles is 23/11 and Berlocq 21/13. I think he may have triggered some shoulder problem here though, either this or that his shoulder issue is still lingering because he started flexing his right shoulder couple of games into the match. 1st serve is 46% or 48%. I may not like his exo location choice, but I think playing exo is in itself a great way to train. He often said the things he did in practice, he couldn’t do it in matches. This exo match is great, he came to the net often, take his opportunity and was offensive through out the match. It’s the kind I wish he can play every match. And it’s a serious match, I mean, they aren’t just having fun out there.

2nd match against Monaco, not so good to watch. 6/2. 6/2. W/UE Gilles is 9/16, Monaco 10/10. His 1st serve is weak and not precise, and only 44%. Not much to say about this match except that he’s just plain bad, the only good thing is that it was done rather quickly.

He also played at Hungary before Buenos Aires, there goes my theory of him vacationing in SA ...He beat Tipsy 6/4 6/4. Soulage posted a news in the DC thread that the French DC team will have a boot camp on the 18th and 19th. FUN!